1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a design of light guide plate. Particularly, the present invention relates to a light guide plate having a supporting unit.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Liquid crystal display devices have been extensively applied to various electrical products including computer, television, and communication devices. In general, the liquid crystal display device has a backlight module as a light source. The backlight module includes a light guide plate, which has functions of guiding light, improving luminance of the backlight module, and controlling brightness uniformity. On the other hand, the display device is becoming smaller, thinner, and/or lighter due to technology improvement and life demand. As a result, inner components of the display device or other electronic products having display function may be required to have the same or even better performance under a limited volume thereof or a limited space in the device.
As the display device 9a shown in FIG. 1A, which uses a backlight module including a conventional light guide plate 6a, a plastic frame 4, and a back plate 5a, wherein the plastic frame 4 has a function of supporting a display panel 8. The display device 9b shown in FIG. 1B, however, uses a backlight module without a plastic frame but a light guide plate 6b incorporated with a supporting rib 3 for supporting the display panel to achieve the function provided by the plastic frame. As a result, the backlight module shown in FIG. 1B, on one hand, has a simplified structure and, on the other hand, creates more space for some components such as the light guide plate. However, when it comes to slim border design for display device, there may still be large-angle light leakage resulted from a narrower light-blocking area 82 due to the slim border design and the lack of a light-shielding tape 7.